Children who experience severe deprivation early in life have smaller brains in adulthood, researchers have found.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/06/severe-childhood-deprivation-reduces-brain-size-study-finds

Nicola Davis
@NicolaKSDavis
Mon 6 Jan 2020 15.00 EST
Last modified on Mon 6 Jan 2020 15.10 EST

The findings are based on scans of young adults who were adopted as children into UK families from Romania’s orphanages that rose under the regime of the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu.

Now experts say that despite the children having been adopted into loving, nurturing families in the early 1990s, the early neglect appears to have left its mark on their brain structures.

“I think the most striking finding is … that the effects on the brain have persisted,” said Prof Edmund Sonuga-Barke, a co-author of the study from King’s College London, who added that the results showed neuroplasticity had limits.

“The idea that everything is recoverable, no matter what your experience … isn’t necessarily true – even with the best care you can still see those signs of that earlier adversity,” he said.

The plight of the undernourished children, who had little social contact and received insufficient care, shocked the world when it came to light after the fall of the communist government in 1989. Ceauşescu’s oppressive policies had banned abortion and contraception, while those without children were taxed. As a result, large numbers of children ended up in orphanages living in terrible conditions.

Previous studies involving the adoptees have shown they had marked cognitive difficulties as children – although these improved considerably into adulthood – while they also had high rates of conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, as adults, high levels of anxiety and depression.

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The team proposed a number of possible mechanisms including the absence of experiences that are important for normal brain development, and chronic stress that could damage the developing brain.

However Sonuga-Barke said it remained unclear which features of deprivation were responsible, and that poor nutrition did not appear to explain the link.

“We are fairly confident that there are psychological routes to these effects as well, linked to lack of stimulation, lack of social interaction, and lack of attachment and bonding,” he said.

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